WESTFIELD – Westfield Babe Ruth’s 13-year-old All-Stars
opened their 2015 State Tournament on their home field in commanding fashion, scoring multiple runs in three different innings to defeat Worcester North End, 8-3, and advance into the winner’s bracket.
Colin Scanlon pitched into the fifth inning and held the No. 2 seed from Districts Three, Four and Five to two runs in his final inning, and the combination of Mason Collingwood and Ryan Moorhouse paced the Wolfpack offense Thursday night at Bullens Field.
“In this tournament, to get the first win is very important,” said Head Coach Matt Avery. “It puts us in the driver’s seat and, in two wins, we can advance to regionals. Hopefully we can execute that plan, but we did put ourselves in a good spot.”
Coming off an undefeated run to the district two championship, Westfield continued its offensive roll against Worcester starting pitcher Jose Bonilla. Collingwood led the offense with three RBIs, while Moorhouse added a pair and Scanlon drove in another run. An error and a wild pitch helped increase the run total.
Josh Lis started the second inning by crushing a double to left-center field and was driven in one batter later on Collingwood’s single. The starting rightfielder later scored on a groundball booted by North End’s shortstop. One inning later, after a Jack Masciadrelli single, Moorhouse crushed a two-run inside-the-park home run to the fence in right field, coming in to score after North End failed to send the relay throw home. Collingwood drove in Lis for the second time three batters later on a groundout to shortstop.
Worcester North plated their first two runs in the fifth inning, but Westfield responded in the sixth inning with three more runs. Collingwood drove in Lis for the third time on a double to the leftfield wall and would score himself on a successful squeeze bunt from Scanlon. Walter Figueroa’s speed on the bases manufactured the final run, after drawing a walk, advancing on a stolen base and a passed ball, and finally scoring on a wild pitch.
“They were tight to start,” said Avery. “They put the bat on the ball and then after that, once they saw the pitcher again, they adjusted to him. We had some offensive plays that we botched early. Those backfired on us, but once we played straight-up baseball, we were good to go.”
A family duo paced Westfield on the mound. Scanlon pitched 4.1 innings, scattering six runs and striking out three batters. His cousin, Matt Pelletier, closed out the game by pitching the final 2.2 innings and striking out four more batters. North End threatened to cut the deficit to two in the fifth inning, but Pelletier retired the final two batters to end the biggest threat of the game for the visitors.
“I thought Colin threw great,” said Avery. “We’ve been harping on pitching strikes and he did a great job. His pitch count wasn’t too high, but after getting hit in the leg with a line drive, we erred on the side of caution. Matt did a good job of helping him and finishing out the game.”
The Wolfpack will face their Western Massachusetts rivals Friday night in the winner’s bracket game at 7:30 p.m. The No. 2 seed in the district, Pittsfield, defeated the No. 1 seed from Central Massachuetts–Joe Schwartz of North Worcester–2-1 in eight innings.
